


Introduction to Topics in TAing

by Pookaseraph



Series: CMUniverse [1]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Ableism, Alternate Universe - College/University, Carnegie Mellon, Fluff, M/M, Pittsburgh, Pre-Slash, Wheelchairs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-17
Updated: 2011-12-17
Packaged: 2017-10-27 10:42:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/294934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pookaseraph/pseuds/Pookaseraph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik is the petty dictator of the TAs. Charles and Tony are first year PhD candidates. Friendship ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Introduction to Topics in TAing

**Author's Note:**

> This is the actual first fic in my CMUniverse series of random fluffy things that I am going to write when I require fluff.
> 
> What should I be doing? Editing things I've already written or writing on nearly-finished WIPs, what am I doing instead? Writing wheelchair fluff.

The one good thing about having done his undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon and gotten in close with his professors, was that when the time came to decide on seniority of TAs, Erik had ranked somewhere near the top. He'd TAed every semester after his first, and he was good at it. The only problem with that was that he had a variety of personalities who seemed to take it personally that they were taking orders from a first year PhD student. He didn't care.

It was still a week before classes started properly, but it was time to divvy up assignments, and he was relishing the ability to smack down assholes by assigning them to the physics for idiots courses. Maybe that was petty, but he saw little reason in being the petty dictator of the TAs if he didn't get to slightly abuse it. They were in one of the many basements of Hamerschlag, in one of the smaller labs, and most of the TAs had already arrived, with the final arrival - a playboy looking type with dark brown hair and a ridiculous goatee.

He started the meeting promptly at 10 and introduced himself and then got everyone's name. One sorry asshole hadn't arrived yet.

"Charles Xavier?"

"Yeah, he got... kinda lost," the goatee boy, Tony, apparently, answered.

"Did you point him in the wrong direction or something?"

"What, no, he's just... trying to figure out how to get here."

Erik rolled his eyes. He knew the buildings could be complicated, but that was no excuse to be almost ten minutes late. He was looking forward to making sure Xavier got every 101 section he could manage. Or, well, he had been until the man wheeled in twelve minutes late looking winded and chagrined.

"Terribly sorry," he said, immediately. "No one I spoke to knew how to get in without... stairs." His voice was posh and British, and he spoke like he expected Erik to accept his apology, but, well... Erik was a lot of things, asshole included, but he wasn't going to yell at a kid who he knew probably had to go around the entire humanities college just to get into 'Schalg.

"Don't let it happen again."

Xavier nodded and wheeled himself next to Tony and the boy put his arm out immediately and Xavier took it and levered himself into one of the chairs, pulled out the folding desk and grabbed a notepad. Erik found himself just a touch impressed, but he shook it off.

"I want a list of your coursework you've already completed, CMU courses, other courses at other colleges, what you'd like to TA, what you would _not_ like to TA, and so on. I won't necessarily give you exactly what you want; no one enjoys TAing 101s. Some of you have advisers who will want you mostly on their courses and so on. Email me by the end of the day tomorrow. The end of the day is 5pm, _not_ midnight." The meeting went on a bit longer as he went over the various rules and regulations, and he even imparted some words of wisdom, although nothing particularly interesting. He didn't know these people, and he wasn't going to gossip when he had no idea who it would get back to.

The meeting broke up about a half-hour later.

Charles leaned back in his seat and took a long breath.

"You alright?" Erik heard Tony ask.

Charles just waved his hands in a way that Erik took to mean 'whatever'. "You know those buildings over... on the left when you're coming towards the building?" Tony nodded. "There's a parking lot behind them, and apparently _that_ is how you get in to Hamerschlag. I'm going to have to use the power chair I think."

"Why didn't you? I souped it up yesterday!"

"Tony, it was smoking. I turned it on, and it produced _smoke_. It's not a car, Tony. I have no idea where the smoke came from, but I fear an electrical fire."

Tony frowned, and Erik smirked to himself, packing up his own things and listening in, mostly because the pair seemed particularly interesting. Charles packed up the rest of his things and then hauled himself back into the chair. "Let's go to the UC and pick up chicks," Tony said as he stood.

"As long as you stop using that post-Feminist line." Charles stopped and seemed to be checking that everything was secure and Erik worked up the nerve to walk over to the pair.

"Hi." Charles and Tony both turned towards him. "I..." He realized he had no idea what he could say, now. "Would you prefer not TAing in Hamerschlag?" He wasn't sure if that was polite or not. He was only asking because, as Charles had just discovered, getting into the building apparently took quite an effort.

Charles gave him a smile, though, and it looked genuine, so it couldn't have been too horrible. "I could do without that potato chip building, either."

"Scaife," Erik filled in. "Yeah... um... there's a couple areas that are fairly hard to get to now that I think about it."

Charles turned towards Tony and Erik got the impression that the two of them were having some sort of silent conversation only with their eyes. "Would you care to come with us to the UC? Apparently we are 'picking up chicks' but I think it's far more likely we will acquire some sort of fried concoction and play video games."

"Sure," he answered immediately. "You probably missed introductions, I'm Erik Lehnsherr."

"Charles Xavier, it's a pleasure."

He held out his hand and Erik shook, Charles' grasp was firm, and he then wheeled off, leading the way out of the room and turned the wrong way, until Erik realized that he was thinking of the way to the stairs to get out of the basement, and he closed and locked up the room before following after Charles.

"You must be grad students, right? Since you don't know the campus."

"Yeah," Tony seemed to be answering for both of them as Charles scanned the halls, probably trying to remember exactly how he'd gotten there.

"Where?"

"MIT for me, Harvard for Charles." In spite of himself, Erik was impressed and gave a light whistle. "Yeah, I know, right, Magnum Sum Lotsahonors."

"Tony, don't be an ass," Charles said with the sort of tone that made Erik think that he might as well have gotten a recorder of some kind so he could just press a button to say it. Charles finally found the elevator he was looking for and punched the down button. "I'm doing biomedical engineering, did biophysics, genetics, and psychology at Harvard."

"I make robots." Tony made a hand gesture that was very likely supposed to represent a robot picking something up in a pincer hand. "Also badass wheelchair enhancements."

"My understanding is that you break the wheelchair, actually," Erik answered.

"He wounds me, Charles."

"You can suck it up, Tony. You did break my chair."

Charles shook his head and the elevator arrived. Charles did some sort of maneuver where he seamlessly made a 180 degree turn and backed into the elevator, nestled right up to the side of the wall. Erik decided that Charles was not new to the whole wheelchair business, although he was still trying to decide if it was rude to ask. Probably, probably rude to ask. 'Oh, by the way, interesting fashion accessory, where'd you pick it up?' Not a good idea. "I'm Electrical and Computer Engineering," he finally volunteered.

"Oooo," Tony answered. For a split second he thought the man was mocking him, but instead he was _beaming_. "I am going to steal your brain and we will program somuchstuff!"

"Glad you two are getting along," Charles said, sliding back out of the elevator and he and Tony followed close behind. Tony started to explain his plans for a few different programs, mostly computer aided robots, algorithms for on the fly pathing decisions, that sort of thing.

"You'll need to make a mobot," Erik offered.

"Oh, I am going to build _so_ many mobots," Tony answered. "Seriously, Charles and I went down the course, by the way, those slopies are super hazardous to his health."

"It will be fine when I have the electronic chair up again, Tony. I'm not looking forward to any of the other buildings though. Who thought it was a good idea to make all of the floors sloped? Easily fifty percent of the floors are sloped." Charles wheeled up to a door and punched a button to open it up and then they were outside.

Erik took a moment to realize where they were, in one of the back parking lots, behind Porter and a few other buildings, sunken in. He then realized it was going to be quite the uphill climb because the whole parking lot had a bit of a grade. "At least it's nice out today," he offered, realizing it was going to be raining any day now and wouldn't stop until July.

"Charles, we could get your chair a golf umbrella!" Tony was walking abreast of Charles now, and Erik joined him, flanking Charles while the man continued to wheel himself up the parking lot. "You could put a huge X on it, that would be sweet. Chick magnet!"

"Yes, clearly." Charles stopped, hands resting against the wheels to keep from rolling backwards, but no longer making any forward progress. Erik followed Tony back to where Charles was, and they waited, a few moments later Erik reacted out to give the chair a push forward, but Tony grabbed his wrist before he got there, and despite the fact that Erik had several inches and pounds on Tony, the boy had a distinct 'I will fuck you up' look in his eyes. After Erik backed off, Tony let go of his wrist and they returned to the waiting game.

He asked Tony where they were living.

"We have this sort of accessablized prime thing in Mudge."

"Is that a word?" Erik asked, sort of amused.

"Tony, could you be a dear and give me a push?"

Tony grabbed the handles of the chair and they were moving again, and Erik managed to pick up the rule easily enough: don't touch the chair unless Charles asks. "It's the best word they have? An apartment or a house would be worse. Charles, we should buy a condo."

Charles waved his hand, dismissive.

"Ch-"

"Tony if you say chick magnet one more time I will kill you with the power of my brain."

Erik snorted, and they finally got around Baker and back onto flat ground and Charles picked up pushing duty again, but they cut a slow pace across campus, slowly rolling towards the student center. "There are some decent condos over on Fifth Avenue, but it would put you over a mile from campus."

Charles shook his head. "Where do you live, Erik?"

"I live at home, up in Squirrel Hill."

"Is that nice? That's one of the nearest groceries, right? Proper groceries, I mean, not the little convenience store in the student center."

"Yeah... It's a bit of a hike... um... roll?" He struggled for the right word, feeling a bit uncomfortable trying to figure out how to wrap his brain around the whole thing.

"Oh, please, Erik," Charles didn't sound hurt or frustrated, just exasperated. "They don't work, but I can appreciate an idiomatic expression without the need to spare my feelings at every turn."

"I didn't want to say anything insensitive." Charles stopped rolling along, and looked up at Erik, eyes squinting, almost like he was trying to read Erik's mind. "You two seemed... friendly." He shrugged. He was bad with people, horrible even. To be honest, he figured that even if they had parents with enough money to send them to Harvard and MIT they might not judge him for living in a cramped rental duplex with his parents and grandparents and an aunt. A lot of the kids, especially the engineers, could be little snots about it when Erik didn't have the latest phone or the flashiest laptop.

"We are friendly," Charles answered. "Very friendly, tell him how friendly we are, Tony."

Tony just laughed and grabbed Charles in a headlock and noogied him before Charles smacked him in the stomach. Charles swatted the guy on his hip.

"Tony, could you go find us a table."

Tony heard the implicit 'get out of here' and sauntered towards the UC at a faster pace. Charles watched him go until he was out of hearing range.

"Sorry, he can be a bit of an ass sometimes." Charles was silent for a long moment. "I don't need a pity friend, Erik."

Erik tamped down on the urge to immediately protest that that was absolutely, completely, not what it was about, but at the same time being completely honest about his reasons would mean putting himself in a far more vulnerable position than he cared for. "It's not that, you two... well, you, anyway, you... damn it. You were the only people in the room I thought might be worth a conversation."

"It was the chair, wasn't it?"

"No, I... no..." How the hell was he supposed to explain that the chair wasn't a _thing_ it just was?!

"It's ok to admit it, it's a very swanky chair. The electric one is painted red and gold. The wheels are big Xes." Charles was grinning at him now, bright and toothy and Erik glowered at him.

"I thought Tony was the asshole," Erik grumbled under his breath, but feeling a bit relieved.

"It's alright, Erik, you like me for my chair, you can admit it."

"It's a very nice chair, Charles."

"Damn right! Now come on, lunch awaits, rolling all over campus is exhausting."

Charles sped off, and Erik had to jog to catch back up to him. "I could show you two around later. I'll be honest, I haven't really thought what campus would be like to get around in a chair. There's lots of places you probably can't get to, or it would take you a long time, so... you could maybe... help me figure it out."

Charles grinned up at him, rolling leisurely down the sidewalk and down towards the front of campus. He looked boyish, and frightfully adorable, and the indignity that Charles had just put him through was completely worth it to see him smile like that. "That would be lovely, Erik. I would like my TA schedule to be overburdensome because that is just the lot of a graduate student, not because it takes a minor miracle to get to the buildings."

"I'll see what I can do."

Erik was finding himself... intrigued by Charles Xavier. He was definitely brilliant, and Erik didn't think he'd ever known anyone like him. It didn't hurt that he was cute as hell. Erik wasn't even certain how that would work, and he had gathered that Charles was more than a bit straight, but that wasn't going to keep him from getting to know the man. They could be friends, and he could admire him from afar, or something. "Do they have salads here? I saw some sort of special that said they put fries on them in Pittsburgh."

"Pretty much everywhere that serves fries and salads has fries on the salad if you ask."

"Tony will be in heaven."

"You can get a regular salad, though, if that's what you want. There's a place for them right inside the door on the right. I can go figure out where Tony's set himself up."

Charles agreed readily, punching open the door and wheeling himself inside. "Thanks, Erik."

This wasn't bad at all, Erik decided. He was going to have quite the time this year if Charles and Tony were half as much fun as they seemed to be.


End file.
